


Recollection Relapse

by jehanna



Series: Sole Survivor: Maria Ikamoto [2]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Found Family, Gen, accidental memory voyeurism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25639129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jehanna/pseuds/jehanna
Summary: After Sole Survivor Maria's first bad experience in the Memory Den, Irma offers her the services for free, whenever. After enough more positive experiences, however, Maria encourages her closest friends and family to do the same, if they'd like.But no science is perfected, and the companions accidentally find themselves not in their own memories, but somebody else's.
Relationships: Female Sole Survivor & Nick Valentine, Female Sole Survivor/Piper Wright, Paladin Danse & Female Sole Survivor
Series: Sole Survivor: Maria Ikamoto [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059080
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Recollection Relapse

Piper isn’t sure what she expects entering the memory den, or what she wants from it. The eccentric woman in the feathered dress isn’t quite helping either, just a little excited when she speaks to Maria. Apparently, Maria had been given free service after she unintentionally saw…

Yeah. The story didn’t exactly make all this appealing to Piper, not really. But Maria had smiled, mentioned how she’d been back before, had reexperienced only positive moments since.

“Yes, miss Ikamoto’s experiences here have offered quite the aid to our research. We’ve greatly improved the ability to scan for positive memories, and _only positive_ memories, when that’s what’s asked of us. Do explain, Amari.”

The doctor, much more mild and subdued, sighs and goes on about the parts of the brain, the chemicals within and...other words Piper doesn’t care to pay attention to. Maria just smiles politely until the tangent of information is over, holding Piper’s hand tightly.

“Now, are you here to experience a memory lounger as well? I didn’t promise free service to her friends as well, but didn’t say no either, so I suppose I can make...an exception.”

Truthfully, she’s still worried, but as they walked the streets of Goodneighbor and the flashing lights of their sign came into view...Piper wondered, faintly, if maybe, just maybe, she could see her dad again like this. Even if it's only a mirage.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess. Blue wants me to try, so…”

“You don’t have to, Piper.”

“I know,” she does smile genuinely at that. Of course she doesn’t, Maria had just wanted her there when she woke up first and foremost, the offer had only come second. “But hey, can’t know til I try right? No caps outta my pocket.”

“Want to go at different times?”

“Nah, much as I like watching you sleep, it’d be pretty boring just sitting there. Hook me up, Irma.”

Maria makes a face, and Piper can't help the giggle that escapes at the silliness of it, because "watching you sleep" only becomes weird when you say it instead of "taking night watch."

“Splendid!”

At least the chair was comfortable, Piper thinks, as the screen drops in front of her and her eyes drift closed.

* * *

When Piper opens her eyes, it’s somewhere she’s never been before.

_Uh, okay, what the fuck?_

Maybe they accidentally hooked up to a dream she had once or something, but this...was not like anything she’s ever been before, not like anything she could have imagined. Too clean, pristine, the stuff drunk ghouls rambled on about at the bar. Pre-war paradise. Plastic, stainless steel, sunny.

Piper unconsciously takes a step forward, is surprised when she actually moves. She’d assumed she’d be a static, forced bystander, for some reason, watching herself from outside her body. But she can walk, see her own hands, wander the strange home she’s in now. Shiny floors and counters, intact couches and seats. The TV is reporting news- televised news! Not a newspaper! Not just a static screen!

Carefully peering out the nearby window, past a dinner table with clean dining ware, she’s further shocked. The trees, the shrubs, the grass...all green, bulbous, alive. She can see a grill and seats, the corner of a lush garden.

“Mister Nate, your coffee is ready!”

Piper can’t smell anything, hear anything, at least from the breakfast cooking on the stove- eggs, and some kind of meat. Piper startles at the sight of the mister handy, so lost in her reverie she had completely missed him and the hums of his rocket.

“Thank you, Codsworth.”

Huh. _Huh????_

“Codsworth?!” Piper asks, shocked, before she can stop herself.

He doesn’t hear her, in fact no one does. She moves forward, reaching out a hand, that unsurprisingly passes through his metal body. Huh. “Codsworth...Maybe- maybe you guys were all called that?”

Moreover, she looks to the man now happily drinking from a mug of steaming coffee, hair tousled from sleep and still his pajamas. Black hair, tannish skin, puckering scars along his chest and arms sure but not enough to be a wastelander, too clean, too shaved. He's pre-war too.

Knowing she would get no response from him, she moves on, to the little living room and stares dumbfounded at the TV.

Aha! So this was before the bombs dropped! Well, it was probably obvious, she supposed, given the...everything. Like a clean house, fresh food, and all. But it gave her an idea of the exact time, at least. Is this how Nick feels when he finds clues for his cases?

“Good morning, honey.”

Just as Piper had been given a moment that felt concrete and understandable, it was shattered by an all too familiar voice. Whipping around, she spots the source standing in the arch of the hallway, where she had been standing just moments ago.

It’s not Maria like she knows now- ever so faint scar across her eye and nose, one like a cleft on her upper lip. Her hair is loose and slightly messed, not like the neat, short and tucked away bob cut she usually sported. In fact Piper’s never seen her hair so long. Nor without makeup either, because Maria insisted eyeliner and lipstick was no different than a raider’s war paint, mentioned how it gave her a sense of normalcy in a world that’s never been normal to her. No, her face is bare, lips chapped and dark circles staining her eyes. Even nowadays, she didn’t look like that much. What could she have possibly worried about in a world like this?

Then she sees him, the little bundle in her arms, grasping slightly at her fluffy bathrobe. She sees the tiniest, onesie-covered arm and just a hint of a little cap, but…

“Little man kept you up, huh?”

Stepping closer, Piper stares, unabashedly knowing that neither people in this scenario can see and judge her. This was...Shaun, Maria’s baby. She could tell, even with the relatively undefined face of an infant, could recognize the curve on the bridge of her nose and steely grey eyes when they peek open for a moment.

“Yep, and you slept through it all, you big oaf.”

Maria smiles wider, the same kind and loving smile she flashes Piper all the time, and she’s a little jealous of the gaze she sends towards Nate, so full of love and adoration. Her thumb is absent-mindedly stroking along Shaun’s little cheek, prompting gurgles and coos from him. Piper’s never cared much for babies, not that she disliked them! She understands the importance of them, how much work and care it took, how much love they deserve. But it was always hypothetical, empathetic, at the thought of someone else’s baby or her faint memories of an infant Nat. Now she understands, she thinks. 

Because it’s so easy to block out Nate and Codsworth, even the words Maria’s speaking to them, and the odd pre-war world Piper only ever imagined in favor of pretending it’s just her, Maria, and her baby.

Their baby.

She’s being presumptuous, she knows, they've never...talked about this. Maria told her what happened, Piper sometimes found her curled up by his crib and more than once employed Danse to carry her back to Red Rocket. But the topic was mostly avoided, like the room in their improvised house, full of scavenged toys. Or the crib sitting safely at said garage, a second home near Sanctuary but more private, Preston had been kind enough to help carry there. The door was locked and kept locked since, though she saw the wistful, sad gaze Maria gave it at times.

Piper had thought about it though, if Maria would allow it, allow her to be something to Shaun. She’s sure she would, a friend and close guardian, but would she...Could Piper ever be considered…

Shaun lets out a happy little noise, something like a whine and a squeal, and she melts.

She didn’t care what title it gave her, what she meant to him. She loved Maria, loved Shaun by extension, she always knew if they found him it’d be the case but now it was sealed. She loved this baby immediately, was so overcome with the need to make him and Maria both safe and warm and loved that she felt a rare burning in her eyes as selfishly, she reached forward, to gently take Shaun’s hand in her own. It moves through hers, she can’t feel it, but it’s not what matters. She wishes he could know and understand, this little promise of her renewed determination to follow Blue to the end of the world, to make sure at all costs this baby is alive and safe, that they’re reunited. And then she won’t let any harm come to them again, no one deserved it more than them.

“Mum. Why don’t you and sir get ready and I keep an eye on young Shaun? Breakfast will only be a little longer!”

Nate laughs. “Sure thing, Codsworth.”

Piper’s too fixated on Shaun, eyes slowly switching between his cherubic face and Maria’s, so clearly exhausted but still happy, so happy Piper can feel it radiating off of her 200 years in the future. She doesn’t hear Amari’s countdown.

_10\. 9. 8._

Nate shuffles beside them, but Maria remains, still with Shaun swaddled in her arms, looking the happiest Piper’s ever seen her. Reluctantly, she lets go of the little hand, not that it matters much, but it hurts nonetheless. There’s so many new emotions she can’t put a name to.

_7\. 6. 5._

Piper stands behind Maria, wraps her arms around her waist with her head where shoulder meets neck, how she always likes. Or she pretends to, knowing she’d fall through this apparition of her girlfriend if she really tried, though that doesn’t make her want to any less.

_4\. 3. 2._

She looks up, at Maria, at all of her. Thinks of how much she wants to have this with her, like she’s never wanted with anyone ever before. Blinks back tears. _I love you._

_1…_

* * *

It’s almost strange to wake up, still in Goodneighbor, still in the wasteland, despite living in it her whole life. The lid to the lounger has already risen up, but she hesitates, waits a moment before she finally gets up. Her hands are shaking, eyes still watering a bit.

But she wants to see Maria, who’s already up, hurrying over to offer Piper a hand. Her eyes are red-rimmed, lipstick all but chewed off and there’s still sniffles she can hear. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, fine, Blue! Really! But uh...you good? You’re looking a little…”

“Yes! Yes...I...It was the first morning, after I brought Shaun home.” She sighs, wistfully, rubs her face with the vault sleeve. She’d been adverse to wearing it for the longest time, wanted no association with the vault, but it became too recognizable, and slowly reincarnated into a symbol of pride, of who she was and what she survived. Piper was proud, so proud. “He kept me up all night, cried every time I left. Nate slept like the dead through it, Codsworth was too busy charging...But we shared breakfast for the first time, as a family, and…Oh! Sorry. I’m rambling.”

Piper smiles, even though she’s a little uneasy. Was...Maria experiencing the same memory? She got so caught up in figuring out her surroundings and then Shaun that she never considered what the hell had just happened. Was she...in Maria’s memory? Did Maria see her? Hear her? Just unable to move from her past self or…

“They got the right memory for you, love?”

No, they didn’t, but she can’t find herself particularly mad at it. Still, she needs a moment, to formulate a lie. And then she chuckles, says “yeah, dear old pop was only there for a minute though. Mostly me and Nat running around like radchickens without their heads.”

Amari looks like she wants to say something, but Piper continues, cutting her off. She doesn’t want Maria to know that Piper had watched in, whether it was intentional or not, didn’t want to ruin that. That moment was supposed to be Maria’s own and only hers, an escape to a better time.

“Well, it’s a hell of a miracle you guys pull here, but I’m starvin’. Wanna see if old Charlie’s got something worth eating?”

Maria giggles, face flushed with her previous, obvious crying but her cheek bones push up so far when she laughs, it crinkles her eyes and Piper loves it, feels a ping of nostalgia for that fabricated moment just a minute ago. “We’re better off asking Daisy, but I’m peckish too, let’s go. Thank you, Irma.”

“Anytime dear, anytime.” The woman laughs. “And hopefully a little earlier next time, Kent hates missing your visits but I won’t wake him up, man barely sleeps as it is.”

“Oh, I’ll come over tomorrow! Hopefully he isn’t too busy.”

Piper feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up at the idea of coming back, because as pleasant and as groundbreaking as that was…

Maria takes her arm through, grins and gestures to the door. They step out into the humming signs and cigarette smoke of Goodneighbor, and Piper forgets everything but the love she felt and that little promise.


End file.
